Various types of hearing prostheses may provide persons with different types of hearing loss with the ability to perceive sound. Hearing loss may be conductive, sensorineural, or some combination of both conductive and sensorineural. Conductive hearing loss typically results from a dysfunction in any of the mechanisms that ordinarily conduct sound waves through the outer ear, the eardrum, or the bones of the middle ear. Sensorineural hearing loss typically results from a dysfunction in the inner ear, including the cochlea where sound vibrations are converted into neural signals, or any other part of the ear, auditory nerve, or brain that may process the neural signals.
Persons with some forms of conductive hearing loss, some forms of sensorineural hearing loss, or some forms of both conductive hearing loss and sensorineural hearing loss may benefit from the use of hearing prostheses. For example, acoustic hearing aids or vibration-based hearing devices may provide persons having conductive hearing loss with the ability to perceive sound by causing vibrations in the person's inner ear (e.g., by directly stimulating the inner ear or by applying vibrations to bone), thus bypassing the person's auditory canal and middle ear. Cochlear implants may provide a person having sensorineural hearing loss with the ability to perceive sound by stimulating the person's auditory nerve via an array of electrodes implanted in the person's cochlea. In addition, some hearing prosthesis systems utilize a hybrid approach combining an acoustic or vibration-based device with a cochlear implant.
The effectiveness of any of these hearing prostheses depends not only on the design of the particular prosthesis but also on how well the device is configured for or “fitted” to a recipient. The process of “fitting” a hearing prosthesis with an appropriate set of configuration parameters (e.g., the operating instructions defining the particular manner in which the prosthesis detects acoustic signals and delivers responsive stimulation to the relevant portions of a person's outer ear, cranial or facial bones, teeth, middle ear, inner ear, cochlea, or brainstem) is often performed by an audiologist or other similarly-trained specialist typically in an office setting or other professional setting away from the prosthesis recipient's home.
The fitting process can include steps to configure the prosthesis to help mitigate feedback. Generally, feedback results when the hearing prosthesis produces an output that returns as an input to the hearing prosthesis. In some cases, this results in a feedback loop, which can produce undesirable sound sensations to the prosthesis recipient. Therefore, it is generally advantageous to provide a fitting process, in which an audiologist or other professional can analyze the way in which each hearing prosthesis encounters feedback and provide an appropriate set of configuration parameters to help mitigate potential feedback. Moreover, it is generally advantageous to make this fitting process as efficient as possible.